Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published July 29, 2024 5:00 AM
(L-R) Southern Californians Kaleigh Gilchrist, Maddie Musselman, Rachel Fattal and Tara Prentice react as the roster for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Women's Water Polo Team is announced in L.A. in May.
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Topline:
Southern California is making another strong appearance at the Paris games. Of nearly 600 Americans competing in Paris, a fifth are from California, with the largest contingent from SoCal.
Something in the water? Olympic historians say the region's sunny days and mild weather are ideal for sports training. But a strong athletic culture that prizes professional and college sports are also factors.
Who to keep an eye on: Some medal contenders include UCLA Bruin Lilia Vu of Fountain Valley and Trojan Kendall Ellis from North Hollywood, who won a gold medal during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Here's a list of the SoCal athletes heading to Paris.
Once again, Southern Californians are making a big splash at the Summer Olympics.
Of the nearly 600 members of Team USA, a fifth are from the Golden State, with the largest contingent hailing from SoCal.
More than 50 Southern Californians are competing in Paris — more athletes than some countries are sending. Part of their dominance has to do with the large population base, but is there also something in the water — or rather, about the weather?
World No.2 Lilia Vu of Fountain Valley is part of the women's golf team.
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Not just the weather
Balmy temperatures and sunny days do indeed make for ideal training conditions for Olympians who can get more practice in outdoors.
But the region's robust sports culture and long history with the Olympics also gets credit for fostering home-grown talent.
"There's always been a lot of support, lot of fandom, lot of boosterism for sports," said Robert Barney, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario.
That boosterism goes for both professional and college sports, and extends to the Olympics, Barney said.
The region's history with the games began about a century ago, when L.A. leaders made a failed bid for the games in the 1920s.
L.A. would go on to host in 1932, and again in 1984. When the Olympics returns to L.A. in summer 2028, it will become the only U.S. city to have hosted the games three times.
Role models
So many current and former Olympians have settled in SoCal that it's not unusual to have one living in your midst.
You've heard that oft-repeated quote from Sally Ride: "You can't be what you can't see."
Well, in SoCal, it's not hard to find an Olympian, making the feat of becoming one seem more attainable,said David Wallechinsky, an Angeleno who wrote The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics.
Olympian Michael Norman of Murrietta competes in the men's 400 meter final at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field Trials last month in Eugene, Ore.
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Kendall Ellis, a member of the U.S. Olympic track and field team, is a Trojan who hails from North Hollywood.
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"If you're a big, strong man, for example, you might want to become a football player," said Wallechinsky, who is also the former president of the International Society of Olympic historians. "But if you are exposed to Olympic sports, you might want to become a shot putter or a weight lifter or a wrestler."
Medal contenders
If you want to master an Olympic sport, California has just the school for you to do that. USC and UCLA are some of the top producers of Olympians, along with Cal and Stanford to the north.
Leading contenders for medals in this Olympics include UCLA Bruin Lilia Vu of Fountain Valley, golf's World No.2. Her teammate Rose Zhang, ranked No. 9, is from Irvine and goes to Stanford.
Most of Team USA's water polo players are from SoCal, such as two-time gold medalist and UCLA graduate Maddie Musselman of Newport Beach.
Two-time gold medalist LeBron James is playing again for Team USA in Paris.
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Expectations are high for the U.S. track and field team, which is enjoying the return of Olympic medal-holders Kendall Ellis from North Hollywood and Michael Norman from Murrieta, both of whom are Trojans.
The tally of Southern Californian Olympians tops 50, and that's not counting athletes who came from out-of-state to attend California schools, or Lakersicons like LeBron James.
While some Olympians update their hometown to their current SoCalresidence, the bio of the two-time gold medalist still states his as Akron, Ohio — his birthplace.
The autonomous ride-hailing service Waymo plans to file a voluntarily software recall after several reports that its self-driving taxis illegally passed stopped school buses.
Why now: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation in October in response to potential violations.
What's next: The company says it identified a software issue that contributed to the incidents and it believes subsequent updates will fix the problem.
The autonomous ride-hailing service Waymo plans to file a voluntarily software recall after several reports that its self-driving taxis illegally passed stopped school buses.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation in October in response to "a media report involving a Waymo AV [autonomous vehicle] that failed to remain stopped when approaching a school bus that was stopped with its red lights flashing, stop arm deployed, and crossing control arm deployed."
WXIA-TV in Atlanta aired video in September that showed a Waymo vehicle driving around a school bus.
The NHTSA website also includes a letter from the Austin Independent School District, saying the district has documented 19 instances of Waymo vehicles "illegally and dangerously" passing the district's school buses. The letter, signed by the district's senior counsel, says in one instance the Waymo vehicle drove past the stopped bus "only moments after a student crossed in front of the vehicle, and while the student was still in the road."
In a statement emailed to NPR, Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña said that while the company is proud of its safety record, "holding the highest safety standards means recognizing when our behavior should be better." Peña wrote that Waymo plans "to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA" and it "will continue analyzing our vehicles performance and making necessary fixes."
The company says it identified a software issue that contributed to the incidents and it believes subsequent updates will fix the problem. Waymo says it plans to file the voluntary recall early next week and it points out that no injuries have occurred because of this problem.
Waymo is a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. It has focused on safety in public statements, showing that driverless Waymo cars have a lot fewer crashes than those with human drivers. In the cities where the company operates, it says there have been 91% fewer crashes with serious injuries and 92% fewer crashes with pedestrian injuries.
Independent analyses from technology news website Ars Technica and the newsletter Understanding AI support Waymo's claim that its AVs are safer than human drivers. Still, federal regulators are asking the company to provide a lot more information about these incidents.
According to NHTSA, Waymo's AVs surpassed 100 million miles of driving last July and continue to accumulate 2 million miles a week. Given that and discussions with Waymo, the agency says "the likelihood of other prior similar incidents is high."
Earlier this week, NHTSA investigators sent a list of detailed questions about the incidents to Waymo as part of its inquiry. The agency asked Waymo to document similar incidents and provide more information about how it has responded. NHTSA set a deadline of Jan. 20, 2026, for Waymo to respond.
Editor's note: Google is a financial supporter of NPR.
Cedar trees in Christmas Tree Lane are lit up at Saturday's lighting ceremony.
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Topline:
The annual Christmas Tree Lane lighting ceremony was held on Saturday, the first time since the Eaton Fire.
Why it matters: The lighting is Altadena’s kickoff to the holidays, a 105-year-old tradition that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year.
Why now: The event takes on extra significance for attendees after devastations from the Eaton Fire.
"3... 2... 1..."
Voices rang out in unison until the nearly mile-long row of cedar trees along Santa Rosa Avenue burst with color.
The Christmas Tree Lane lighting is Altadena’s kickoff to the holidays, a 105-year-old tradition that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year.
And it was all that on Saturday night.
After the Eaton Fire, though, the celebration was more for many who attended. Many things about the lighting remained the same: speeches by dignitaries, a performance by the high school drumline.
But so much was different. A tree just off the lane was lit in white with 19 green lights honoring every person who died in the fire.
A tree off the Christmas Tree Lane was lit in white with 19 green lights honoring every person who died in the fire.
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And during the ceremony, a minute and 19 seconds of silence was observed, led by the night’s emcee, actor Edward James Olmos.
LAist was at Saturday night's lighting event.
Megan Murdock
Longtime Altadena resident Megan Murdock and her partner Steven Valle.
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Saturday marked longtime Altadena resident Megan Murdock's very first outing.
"I love Christmas Tree Lane, but I've never been to the lighting event," she said. " This felt like the year to show up and represent."
As the first anniversary of the Eaton Fire approaches, Murdock said it's been amazing to see the community rebuild, even though the scars are still raw.
"Through the rebuilding, there were really hard days, there's going be more really hard days," she said. "But today's a good day."
Seamus Bozeman
Seamus Bozeman and his family lost their home in Altadena.
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Seamus Bozeman will always call Altadena home.
He and his family lost their house in the Eaton Fire. But every chance he gets, Bozeman (a former LAist intern) can be found hanging out in his old haunts.
"I come back and shop at the shops as much as I can, eat from the restaurants here," he said. "I love this place so much."
Christmas Tree Lane lighting ceremony on Saturday.
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He said the tree-lighting ceremony he grew up knowing was a quaint, neighborhood affair.
" With this whole festival and everything because of the fire, I don't know, it's not the same for me," he said.
But change, he knows, is inevitable.
" I'm hoping it's for the better," Bozeman said. "But one thing I do know is that we'll be closer as a community because of this fire."
Patricia Valencia
Patricia Valencia (R) and her friend at the Christmas Tree Lane lighting ceremony.
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For Patricia Valencia, who lost her home in the fire, Saturday night's event was a reunion.
"I saw my neighbor for the first time since we evacuated," she said. "It was emotional! I gave him a hug, and I was like, I think I'm gonna cry because I haven't seen you since that night that we left."
Greg Demus
Christmas Tree Lane resident Greg Demus.
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Greg Demus lives right on Christmas Tree Lane. For him, the event is an annual ritual.
" I've been coming here all my life," he said.
But after the fire, few things are a given.
" I wasn't quite sure what to expect," Demus said of this year's ceremony. "But it's good to see so many people come back to try to celebrate Altadena and keep Altadena strong."
Howard and Linella Raff
Howard Raff and his wife Linella at Saturday's Christmas Tree Lane lighting ceremony.
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Howard Raff and his wife Linella are renting outside of Altadena while their home is being remediated.
"Coming back, you just want it to be what it was, and you don't know what it's going to be like. So having this was kind of an anchor of something that you knew was going to be there," Linella said.
Marguerite Lockwood de Jauregui
Marguerite Lockwood de Jauregui holds up a photocopy of the house in Altadena she lived in for three years, at the corner of Santa Rosa Avenue and East Mariposa Street where she is standing.
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Marguerite Lockwood de Jauregui and her husband arrived at Christmas Tree Lane on Saturday in the early afternoon.
As soon as they were able to enter the area, the two set up their chairs at the corner of Santa Rosa Avenue and Mariposa Street.
The intersection of Mariposa Street and Santa Rosa Avenue at Christmas Tree Lane
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The lot on that corner now sits razed and empty. But before the fire, it was the house where de Jauregui had lived for three years after college. A place where she built lifelong friendships with her roommates.
"It was such great memories and a great camaraderie," she said.
Altadena, she remembered, was vibrant and free-spirited.
"It was a really close-knit community," she said. "When you go further down Fair Oaks, you could go to the movies and dinner. You get together with friends in their historical homes, and we'd all sit around and play music."
Marguerite Lockwood de Jauregui brought with her a photocopy of the Altadena house she stayed at.
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She returned to Christmas Tree Lane on Saturday to honor those formative years — and brought along images and drawings of the house that burned down.
"It was almost like claiming a bit of my own personal history back," she said.
A pint of beer is served at the Great British Beer Festival on Aug. 1, 2006, in London.
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Topline:
The FIFA World Cup is coming to L.A. in 2026. Fans of clubs from different parts of the world will probably look for something familiar when they land in L.A.
And ... one British expat and writer has put together this guide for the best European pubs to watch games in the L.A. area.
The FIFA World Cup is just a few months away, and some national soccer teams, like Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan are competing for the first time. Their fans — and those of the other 45 countries — will probably look for something familiar when they land in L.A.
Whether it’s a fast food logo or a restaurant serving regional dishes from home, that sense of familiarity can be the first stepping stone before you start discovering the delights of where you are now.
When I arrived in Los Angeles from England, I was soon directed to Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica. Judging by the dozens of photographs on the wall, it has been a kind of entry checkpoint for newly arrived British Isles celebrities and regulars alike since the 1970s. They do afternoon tea, of course, plus their bar will open early to show UK soccer matches. Their store has snacks and candy for the homesick.
It was, of course, reassuring for me to hear familiar accents and recognize the beers on tap and even some of the crisps — sorry, chips — behind the bar. Asking whether any “football” matches were going to be shown didn’t raise any eyebrows either, even though that could mean having to arrive soon after sunrise because of the time difference in the UK.
British comfort food at Ye Olde King's Head in Santa Monica.
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Even if I had been living locally, I don’t think it would have become my “local” (as it were) because I thought it was important to try to get to know my new home, rather than hold on too tight to what I had just left behind.
That said, I did occasionally return to watch football matches and even for a couple of New Year’s Eves, which happen here at 4 p.m. to coincide with midnight in England. Then I could call home and hear the singing of “Auld Lang Syne” while we in the pub were singing it at the same time.
Here's a select list of pubs where you can sample the drinks, eats and even watch the sports from several European countries.
Ireland
The Auld Fella (Culver City & Brentwood) 9375 Culver Blvd., Culver City
Auld Fella in Culver City
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Owned by an actual Irishman, Kevin Kearns from Inishowen, they pour an excellent Guinness (don’t ask any Irish person about the importance of that, nor how hard it is to find that in L.A.) and have a good selection of savory pies. Kevin’s also an actor and appeared in blockbuster Battleship.
Tom Bergin’s (Mid-Town/Fairfax) 840 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles
Tom Bergin's in the Fairfax District.
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An L.A. staple since 1936, it’s the center of celebrations on St. Patrick’s Day. Stapled to the ceiling and walls around the horseshoe bar are shamrocks with the names of past patrons: try to find Cary Grant, Kiefer Sutherland, Ronald Reagan and Bing Crosby. A short menu, but you can get shepherd’s pie (steak, carrots, celery, caramelized onions, under mashed potatoes), and it’s said to have invented Irish coffee. Choose that or a good Guinness.
Molly Malone’s (Mid-Town/Fairfax) 575 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles
Molly Malone's in the Fairfax District.
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Owned by Irish family the Hanlons since 1969, Molly’s was damaged by a fire last year but bounced right back with its dark interior and original mission as a place where Irish troubadours and traditional musicians could get together. It’s long been a respected music venue and occasionally gets some bigger names on stage. You’ll get a good pour here, too, though the menu is just a few items long.
Named after a bonnet worn by Scotsmen, the “Tam” looks like a castle crossed with a witch’s house, in part because the original fairytale European look wasn’t a hit for owners Van de Kamp bakeries when they opened in 1922, so they pivoted to kilts, flags and bagpipes. Actors came in from the nearby studios, and famously, Walt Disney and his companions were regulars. A steakhouse, it also offers Scottish rarebit (cheddar, Scottish ale, cayenne pepper on sourdough) and, as you see when you enter, a large selection of scotch whiskeys. It even has resident ghosts!
Head to Wirsthaus to experience the best of Bavaria with steins of German beers, giant pretzels, schnitzel (boneless, thin slices of meat that are pounded, breaded and pan-fried until golden and crispy), bratwurst (sausages), plenty of oompah music and staff dressed in traditional dirndls and lederhosen — the Hollywood movie go-to for scenes of beer debauchery.
Red Lion Tavern (Silver Lake) 2366 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles
Red Lion in Los Feliz.
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Originally an “Olde English” pub opened by the then-owners of Cole’s in downtown, it always had some German beers on draft, and in 1963, new owners fully embraced that. The German wife of one of them reportedly taught her home recipes to the chef, and it was German-owned until 2004, when Aidas Mattis and family, longtime patrons, took over. They kept up the style at this small, maze-like local favorite: flags, German signs, memorabilia and the back-patio beer garden. Schnitzel, spaetzle (doughy noodles), goulash and bratwurst are on the menu, as well as many beers and ciders. Oktoberfest runs Oct. 14, 15, 21 and 22. Try a four-liter boot of beer.
England
The Cat & Fiddle (West Hollywood) 742 Highland Ave., West Hollywood
The Cat & Fiddle in West Hollywood.
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Located on Sunset Boulevard for several decades, “The Cat” has long been an expat hangout, especially for musicians. Now on Highland Avenue, the Gardner children carry on offering a friendly face and a familiar meal to all visitors. Their Sunday roasts are a real taste of home, and they have other classic British dishes like shepherd’s pie, a ploughman’s lunch (Gloucester, brie, scotch egg, grapes, cornichons, Branston pickle and baguette), Scotch egg and sticky toffee pudding. Want to know what those last two are? Go visit!
The Canaby (in the works)
Soon, ex-pats will be able to try Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby, a recently announced 175-seat British gastropub that will open at Downtown Disney and bring 1960s London to Anaheim. Live bands will play music from that fab era, and dishes will include beef Wellington, fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding. No word yet on an opening date.
The Trump administration has removed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth from next year's calendar of entrance fee-free days for national parks and added President Trump's birthday to the list, according to the National Park Service.
Why now: The administration continues to push back against a reckoning of the country's racist history on federal lands.
Other free dates: In addition to Trump's birthday — which coincides with Flag Day (June 14) — the updated calendar of fee-free dates includes the 110th anniversary of the NPS (August 25), Constitution Day (September 17) and President Teddy Roosevelt's birthday (October 27). The changes will take effect starting January 1.
The Trump administration has removed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth from next year's calendar of entrance fee-free days for national parks and added President Trump's birthday to the list, according to the National Park Service, as the administration continues to push back against a reckoning of the country's racist history on federal lands.
In addition to Trump's birthday — which coincides with Flag Day (June 14) — the updated calendar of fee-free dates includes the 110th anniversary of the NPS (August 25), Constitution Day (September 17) and President Teddy Roosevelt's birthday (October 27). The changes will take effect starting January 1.
Non-U.S. residents will still be required to pay entrance fees on those dates under the new "America-first pricing" policy. At 11 of some of the country's most popular national parks, international visitors will be charged an extra $100, on top of the standard entrance fee, and the annual pass for non-residents will go up to $250. The annual pass for residents will be $80.
The move follows a July executive order from the White House that called to increase fees applied to non-American visitors to national parks and grant citizens and residents "preferential treatment with respect to any remaining recreational access rules, including permitting or lottery rules."
The Department of the Interior, which oversees NPS, called the new fee-exempted dates "patriotic fee-free days," in an announcement that lauded the changes as "Trump's commitment to making national parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for the American people."
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement: "These policies ensure that U.S. taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations."
The new calendar follows the Trump administration's previous moves to reshape U.S. history by asking patrons of national parks to flag any signs at sites deemed to cast a negative light on past or living Americans.
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